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Don Lemon Tonight

Justice Department Issues New Subpoena To National Archives; Car Bomb Kills Daughter Of Putin Ally; Black Americans Call On Biden To Address Their Economic Concerns; Voters In NY And FL Are Heading To Polls; At Least One Dead After Intense Rain And Flooding In Dallas. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired August 22, 2022 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[23:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Some documents were held in. What is your read on this situation? How will investigators get to the bottom of this?

PETER STRZOK, FORMER FBI COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AGENT, AUTHOR: Well, they've got a lot of work ahead of them. I mean, clearly, there are a number of things that are really interesting in this new "New York Times" reporting.

One is, as you indicated, there is some concern that between the first subpoena to get the CCTV coverage, that there was something that occurred in later days that made them think that there might be relevant information.

The immediate concern that I would have is, of course, were people taking things in or out, who were either trying to hide them or move them somewhere else. And again, that's in the context of a much broader counter intelligence concern of just who had access.

I mean, clearly, former President Trump did, but any number of other people, particularly including those linked to foreign intelligence services, might also have. That is something investigators need to look at.

So, there are a lot of questions as an investigator. This new information makes me think there is a lot more investigation ahead, and all of it is really concerning.

LEMON: Evan, you broke the story tonight about a new DOJ subpoena. What is the latest?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. Jamie Gangel and I were told that there was a second subpoena that was -- a grand jury subpoena that was served to the National Archives to produce additional documents. You remember that the Archives responded to a subpoena from the Justice Department back in May to provide all of the documents that they had provided to the January 6 Committee.

It appears that Tom Windom and the team that are looking at things beyond the rioters, they're looking at the effort to impede the transfer of power and the role of the former president and some of his allies. It looks like they have decided that there is additional material that the January 6 Committee perhaps did not know about and did not ask about, that they are interested in as part of their investigation. It tells us that there is more that they know about.

LEMON: Kim, does it tell you anything that the DOJ is going back to the National Archives for more documents about January 6th? I mean, does this mean trouble for the former president or who else could it mean or could spell trouble for?

KIM WEHLE, AUTHOR, VISITING PROFESSOR OF LAW AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Well, I've always thought that this was going to be, you know, one, two punch, that is the January 6 Committee warms up the American public to the idea that a former president could be in serious criminal trouble. It was unthinkable, not that far -- long ago. And now, we are seeing DOJ follow up with criminal process which is really different, of course, Don.

We might see the January 6 Committee sort of evaporate in November if Republicans take over the House of Representatives. So, there is an expiration date on that, but there is not an expiration date on the criminal justice system.

So, I do think, you know -- Merrick Garland has said that he's a methodical prosecutor in this way, over 800 lower level offenses, and now we are seeing them climb the ladder up to the very top. I think, as I said, the January 6 Committee has laid out a good case for potential criminal liability on behalf of Donald Trump. Of course, that is just January 6th.

This -- as Peter said, this Florida story is very serious, and "The New York Times" indicated that there might be some questions as to whether the government even has all the documents that were taken out of the White House. It also indicates Donald Trump looked through the boxes.

So, you know, this is not going away anytime soon, Don. I think it could be one of the biggest stories around the presidential misuse of power in the history of America, frankly.

LEMON: Kim, I want you to weigh in on this because this is -- I mean, this happened this morning. But I just -- I need to -- I thought it was very important. I don't know if people are playing it big enough but -- or maybe I'm, you know, reading too much into it.

But the judge who signed off on this affidavit, right, the search for Mar-a-Lago, he is saying -- he said he also notes investigators' assemblage of the facts, so far supporting the need for evidence gathering, are reliable. Having carefully reviewed the affidavit before signing the warrant, I was and am satisfied that the facts sworn by the affiant are reliable.

I thought that that was pretty important. No?

WEHLE: Yeah. Actually, don, that jumped out of me when I read it as well. That was a direct response to the misinformation, the swirling out there, the speculation that somehow there wasn't Fourth Amendment basis for the search. He is saying, listen, I'm on the job, I'm a federal judge. I'm the watchdog on this, and it does satisfy the legal standards.

And he also made a point of talking about concerns regarding the threats of violence against FBI agents and those public servants that were involved in getting to the bottom of what looks like some serious violations of law and probably criminal violations relating to taking serious records out of the coffers of the United States government.

LEMON: What do you make of that, Peter?

[23:05:00]

STRZOK: Well, I think it's going to be interesting. You know, Trump filed or his attorneys filed this recent filing claim that they wanted a special master to go through the material that the FBI had seized. I think that the filing, having read it, it seems like a tremendous public relations campaign much more than it is a serious legal document.

So, I would expect -- I don't see a lot of merit in it legally. I think that the judge, when we get to later in this week, is going to support DOJ's request, essentially black out and redact almost the entirety. So, I would not look forward to any new revelations coming out of court on Thursday.

As far as Trump's new filing, I think it's nonsense. It's designed to get out in front of his supporters to rally the base. There isn't a lot of legal merit to it, and I don't expect it to go very far at all.

LEMON: Evan, you have been going through this filing. What stands out to you?

PEREZ: Well, I think to pick up on what you guys have been talking about, I think a lot of it is a bit of a P.R. strategy. Look, this is something that the former president could have done two weeks ago. Shortly after the FBI arrived at Mar-a-Lago, his lawyers could have gone and said this. Even last week, when there was a court hearing, his lawyers were in court and they could have stood up and said something. They could have been hurt and they did not.

You know, what you see in this court filing, I will read just a part of it, where he uses the court filing to essentially air his grievances, and he says -- quote -- "Politics cannot be allowed to impact the administration of justice." Of course, this is something where big accusation of the Trump era Justice Department was that it was influenced by politics, Don.

LEMON: Politics cannot be allowed to impact the administration of justice. Were you trying to say something, Kim? Sorry, I was looking down at my notes.

WEHLE: Yeah, I just -- you know, I started with 90 brand-new law students last weekend. You know, something really basic about the law. When you file a motion, it's because you want some kind of relief. You want something to happen to help your case. Asking for a special master is not asking to have the affidavit released. He has not asked for that. He cites a criminal rule that could allow an order getting his property back. He does not ask for his property back because it's not his property. He talks about suppressing evidence but he has not been indicted. There is no criminal process. There is no trial.

So, you know, if he gets what he is asking for, special master, that's basically another set of judicial eyes looking over this process. Nothing could actually come of it to change the stage that is set for Donald Trump.

And so, from a legal perspective, it's really meaningless, and I agree it's about changing the narrative, shifting the discussion to make it look like there's actually another side to the story. So far, we don't see one other than some serious, serious problems, misusing and abusing classified information by a former president.

LEMON: Trump is also sending a message to the attorney journal, Merrick Garland, in his lawsuit. Evan, what is that about?

PEREZ: Yeah. You know, that was astonishing, you know, to see the former president and his legal team acknowledge something that has been recorded, that shortly after the FBI search, a member of his team reached out to the Justice Department to send a message to the attorney general, saying -- quote -- "President Trump wants the attorney general to know that he has been hearing from people all over the country about the raid. The heat is building up. The pressure is building up. Whatever I can do to take the heat down, to bring the pressure down, just let us know."

Don, you know, that reads a little bit like, you know, nice investigation you've got there. You know, be ashamed of something happened to it. That is kind of --

(LAUGHTER)

PEREZ: -- the tone of that message, you know.

LEMON: Yeah.

PEREZ: And look, I mean, I think, you know, we're talking a lot about the Mar-a-Lago search because it was an important thing and it's a big thing that just happened, but keep in mind, the January 6 investigation, the criminal investigation that is going on, Tom Windom and the U.S. attorney's office here in Washington, there is a grand jury that is focused on that, that thing is probably more powerless to the former president. And, you know, there is a lot of effort to distract from that by using this legal process here.

LEMON: You know, Peter, this lawsuit is full of grievances like this. The FBI and the DOJ have demonstrated a willingness to treat President Trump differently than any other citizen. The former president goes on to mention you by name. What do you have to say to that?

STRZOK: You know, Don, it's a tired story. I mean, I thought at this point in 2022, I would no longer be at the point where I'm sort of living in the former president's head rent free, and when the demons come at night, there I am. But, you know, it is a little surreal, it is obviously nonsense.

[23:09:55]

I mean, the things that were demonstrated by the FBI's investigation, by special counsel Robert Mueller were unequivocally illegal acts which led to any number of prosecutions. And so, for him to suggest that there's any sort of, you know, political motivation behind this is absolutely nonsense.

I laughed at Evan's pointing out that the early, one of the first sentences is, justice should not be political. You know what the very next sentence is? I'm the leading candidate for the Republican Party for the president. So, on the one hand, it should not be political, but let me immediately make it political because I'm going to throw around, you know, how great I am and I'm going to be the next candidate.

So, it is all, at the end of the day, this is nonsense. It does -- it disappoints me to see my name in there. Unfortunately, it does not surprise me. And, you know, again, I think, at the end of the day, the reason it is there is because he perceives some value to rally his base.

It has no relevance to what the court is ultimately going to find. And again, I suspect this is going to be quickly dismissed and have no real impact on what DOJ is doing down at Mar-a-Lago.

LEMON: It's to distract from the real issue of his potential wrongdoing. Kim, could this move, though, from Trump have any impact on the judge releasing a redacted version of the search warrant affidavit? Because the deadline for the DOJ to explain what needs to be kept secret, that is just days away.

WEHLE: Yes. So, the special master, I think, is to go over to return the documents they actually took. There was something in there honestly that I thought was not good for Trump. That is, he suggests that he needs to have more information about the people that engaged in this to see if any FBI agent also worked on the Mueller report.

If I were the judge reading that, that would make the hair on my neck stand up. That is, you know, the threats, these veiled threats to public servants. That is not going to help Donald Trump.

So, the special master is a little bit separate from the affidavit. I think we will see -- the judges said we are going to see probably a redacted affidavit, depending, it didn't say 100%. He wants to see what the Justice Department gives them.

I think it's going to be a lot of black sharpie, Don. It's going to be pages and pages of black sharpie. And then some people will say, this shows there was a lot of information that gave rise, as you indicated, the judge's decision, this was reliable. And then the Trump's side is going to say what the Trump's side is going to say, and we just need to keep our focus on what really matters here, which is the rule of law and the safety and security of the American people.

LEMON: Evan, can you tell me about these new dramatic details tonight that you are hearing about this encounter between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Proud Boys on January 6th? What is that?

PEREZ: Yeah. I mean, so, this came out in a filing today, Don, and you know, the remarkable thing about this is we are learning these new details even still, you know, 18 months since the attack on the Capitol. And according to the Justice Department, you know, you have cops who are trying to rescue and put some of the leaders of the Senate and Congress to safety, take them to safety.

And one of the cops actually made eye contact with one of the members who is charged there. You could see the video. They come within feet, really, and kind of follows on some earlier revelations of how close members of the attackers came to the vice president, the then vice president. Again, they came within yards of him as he was being moved to a safe location. It really is chilling that these new videos are emerging and showing you just how close we came to disaster.

LEMON: So, Peter, just looking ahead here. The January 6 Committee is going to restart in September. And they have been interviewing witnesses. What do you think we're going to see?

STRZOK: I think what we're going to see is an attempt to take all the different threats that they laid out, whether it was the violence on the ground, whether it was the fake electoral slates, whether it was operations within the Department of Justice trying to upend the vote, and tie those altogether and bring them at one point to Trump.

I certainly would and hope to hear a little bit more information about groups like the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, some of the folks that were possibly involved in either responding or not responding in the case of the National Guard, and whether or not there were any links between that activity or inactivity in the White House.

So, I do hope we get some a little bit more visibility into the senior members of U.S. government agencies and the Trump administration, but I think they are going to try and take that, wrap it up, and of course they've been doing some.

Liz Cheney made a comment that the floodgates had opened. So, I anticipate they've been doing more interviews. I anticipate they have been getting much more compelling information, and they will sit down and do what they, in my opinion, have been doing a very good job of, and that that is sort of pulling out really compelling narratives, really compelling interviews, firsthand information, and laying that out for the American people to see exactly what was going on January 6.

LEMON: Peter, Kim, Evan, thank you all. I appreciate it. [23:14:57]

A car bomb kills the daughter of Vladimir Putin ally. Now, the Biden administration says it hasn't come to any conclusions about who was behind it. More details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: There are growing fears of escalation in Ukraine tonight after the Kremlin accused the country of carrying out an attack on the daughter of a prominent Putin ally.

Darya Dugina was killed this weekend when her SUV exploded on the outskirts of Moscow. Ukraine says that they had nothing to do with the car bomb. But Russian officials are releasing this video of a woman they claim is Ukraine's special service's operative. The claim that she entered Russia with her young daughter, carried out the car bombing, and then fled to neighboring Estonia.

[23:20:03]

I want to bring in now CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton and global affairs analyst Susan Glasser. Thank you both for joining. I appreciate it. Good evening.

Colonel, the Biden administration tells CNN it hasn't reached to any conclusion about who might be behind this car bombing, but Russian media personalities are demanding strikes on Kyiv in response. Give us an assessment of -- your assessment of the situation.

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST, RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL: Well, Don, I think this is one of those tinderbox-type situations. I think the the possibility exists that even if the Ukrainians had absolutely nothing to do with this assassination of Darya Dugina, the possibility exists that the Russians will use it as an excuse to actually do something militarily against Ukraine.

What exactly that will be is hard to assessed, but we have Ukrainian Independence Day coming up on the 24th, which conveniently coincides with the sixth month anniversary of this war, the start of this war, and it is, you know, basically an area that is rife for this kind of situation to develop and to go out of control.

We can't forget also that we have the nuclear power plant down south in Zaporizhzhia which could also serve as a place from which to launch some kind of an attack or some kind of an effort against Ukrainian forces.

LEMON: It's amazing. It has been six months. I mean, you know, just to hear it again, it just brings us back to reality. What does it say to you, Susan, that Russia's security service is announcing that they apparently solve this whole case in just 24 hours, complete with a name and video of the person that they claim is responsible for Darya Dugina's death?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yeah, well, I think, Don, when you look at how many unsolved killings there have been of opponents of the Putin regime who have mysteriously knocked off for years without the FSB ever finding who did it, this is really striking.

And elements of the story, of course, seemed to be ripped right out of a spy novel. Not only do they claim that a woman and her 12-year-old daughter were involved and surveilling, in a mini cooper, fleeing to Estonia which often figures in a very detailed way as sort of enemy number one in official propaganda of the Russian government, you know, it feels wrapped up in a pretty neat bow and presented as a full package of camera-ready propaganda for Russians.

You know, it is too -- it is impossible to tell, of course, if there is any voracity or not to the report, but it is certainly striking, as Cedric pointed out, what is happening right now in the ground, in the war in Ukraine, the war that Russia launched.

Not only are there distractions in effect from the campaign of terrorism, that is the only word for it, that Russia has carried out against the Ukrainian people. Right now, there is, in fact, the threat of nuclear terrorism by holding hostage the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. That is just one of many horrific examples of what is actually happening on the ground. But this is a monumental changing of the story certainly.

LEMON: Cedric, colonel, you heard what Susan said. It is just sort of wrapped up in a bow here. Does this attack have the markings of a false flag operation? I mean, we know Russia has attempted attacks like that in the past.

LEIGHTON: My suspicions are that it does, Don. I agree with Susan, this is a situation where it is all just too neat. You do not solve crimes like this in 24 hours. And if you know enough about a crime like this and it's about to occur, you prevent the crime from happening.

So, we do not know exactly what's the relationship between the father, Alexander Dugin, and Putin is. There is some speculation that he is -- quote -- "Putin's brain" -- unquote. There is other word that he probably was not that close to Putin and I tend to go with that thought process.

But this is a situation where the crime is just too neat. It has all of the hallmarks of a professional hit job. But the few people that can commit professional hit jobs actually worked for Putin in Russia, at least most of them do.

And so, you know, is there something that happened between those people and Putin? Is there something else that is going on? Is there a power struggle that is going on? That could very well be the case. And to use that, Putin can, to his advantage in the effort to galvanize public opinion in Russia once again to go after Ukraine, this is the perfect opportunity for him to do so.

LEMON: Susan, can you weigh in on that?

[23:24:59]

What do we know about Darya Dugina's father and how close he is with Putin and how might that play into the Kremlin's response?

GLASSER: There is no question that Alexander Dugin -- going back to two decades ago, when I was in Moscow and reporting for "The Washington Post," he was sort of the -- you might call him one of the intellectual godfathers of this -- quote, unquote -- "Eurasia movement," the idea essentially that Russia's path is not of integration with Europe and the west but has its own special destiny, if you will. He has built a whole infrastructure around that in the subsequent couple decades.

His daughter was involved in this. She was the spokesperson for her father's causes. She was sanctioned, by the way, by both the United States and Great Britain in recent months after Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine. She was the editor of a website that was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who you were talking in your previous segment with Peter Strzok, who was the founder of the internet research agency which figured in the 2016 hacking of the U.S. election.

So, you know, she and her father are absolutely part of the kind of ideological underpinnings of Putinism, if you will. Does that make him a close confidante of Putin? I've not seen any evidence to suggest that they really are as close as some of the stories that you might read right now indicate.

LEMON: Yeah. Colonel, the U.S. just announced another $775 million in military assistance to Ukraine, including howitzers, ammunition, armor, drones. What does that mean for the grounding? Where is this fight heading?

LEIGHTON: I think, Don, what this package is going to do, the $775 million, it is going to add to the ability of the Ukrainian forces to do things in terms of reconnaissance as well as targeting that they've been able to do but it is going to improve upon that. It is going to allow them to track and target Russian forces in the east, in the Donbas region as well as in the south.

The Ukrainians are looking at, you know, obviously going into the south. They are publicly announcing that they will mount an offensive to retake Kherson, that region in the south. Whether or not they actually do that with a full-blown offensive, I'm kind of doubtful that they will do it that way.

But what they are going to do is they're going to do pinpoint attacks, special operation-type attacks that will attack things like arms depots, flight lines on air bases, headquarters, perhaps individual Russian soldiers and Russian leaders. But that is the kind of thing that this will allow them to do when their targeting is going to get very, very precise, especially with drones like the ScanEagle drone, which is a part of this package.

LEMON: Colonel, Susan, thank you both. I appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Don. LEMON: Black voters help put President Biden in the White House. Now, many are feeling that the impact of inflation is hitting them really hard and calling on the president to step up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: With the midterm election just months away and the next presidential contest a little more than two years away, many Black voters have a message for politicians, especially President Joe Biden. Pay attention to our economic needs. Inflation is hurting a lot of Black families and Black entrepreneurs. They want more access to capital.

Thousands of people recently gathering in Atlanta to educate themselves about investing and starting businesses and to demand their voices be heard.

We have more tonight from CNN's Ryan Young.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): How tough the last two years been?

D. CHERELLE, OWNER, BUSINESS SQUARED: Whew! The last two years have been really tough.

YOUNG (voice-over): The pandemic and inflation have hit Americans hard, increasing longstanding disparities in some communities, and African-Americans want the president's attention.

BRIANNA MEMBRES, FOUNDER AND CEO, SHE EDITS LLC: As a middle-class Black woman, I don't see the push for the black economic community like really exploding.

ELISHA MONIQUE, EVENT ATTENDEE: I think the message is being delivered, but I don't think the message is being captured in the way that we wanted it to be captured.

YOUNG (voice-over): Black Americans account for $1.6 trillion of spending power in the United States but often feel ignored.

MATTHEW GARLAND, EARN YOUR LEISURE: We want hours. We need hours. We need to have access to capital. We want action. We need action. We demand action.

YOUNG (voice-over): Earlier this summer, Vice President Kamala Harris announced new public private initiatives in underserved communities, hoping to kickstart major minority investments.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And I believe, given the breadth of the financial disparities in our nation, the public and the private sector must join forces to take on these challenges.

YOUNG (voice-over): Thousands of African-Americans travel from all over the country to Invest Fest in Atlanta in hopes of learning the keys to financial literacy and starting their own businesses. This at a time when African-American unemployment is nearly twice the national average. Those here tell me creating jobs is a priority.

UNKNOWN: The black community has a pre-existing pipeline of prison, but we do not have a pre-existing pipeline to work (ph).

YOUNG (voice-over): Film TV star and producer Tyler Perry and Steve Harvey helped headline this event, which is all about education in investing. It is the brain child of these four men who helped create Earn Your Leisure, a financial literacy movement focused on helping Black Americans.

[23:35:00]

TROY MILLINGS, EARN YOUR LEISURE: This is a movement. We call that very intentionally. We grew up and heard things about the march in Washington, the civil rights movement. I had a son. Right now, we are in a financial revolution.

RASHAD BILAL, EARN YOUR LEISURE: We need to figure out how we can actually attack from the highest level and build our own venture capital funds and have our own private equity firms and do international business, and then we do not actually have to demand the politicians do anything. We can force them to do things. We force them to do things about money.

YOUNG (voice-over): A recent poll found that 55% of Black and 48% of Latino adults say they are currently facing serious financial problems due to inflation. For white adults, it's 38%.

DON PEEBLES, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, THE PEEBLES CORPORATION: The wealth disparity between Blacks and whites was greater in 2018 than 1968. But everything we do needs to be focused on advancing opportunity economically.

YOUNG (voice-over): Don Peebles beat the odds. His company controls more than $7 billion worth of investments. He believes African- Americans need more direct investment from the Biden administration.

PEEBLES: I know President Biden. I've known him for many years. He is a very good person. I believe that he is missing the mark on his most loyal and valuable constituency because without Black voters, he would be a private citizen.

YOUNG (voice-over): With the midterms looming, Democrats will count on African-Americans to turn out and vote. Many hoping for a return on their long-term investment.

UNKNOWN: Poor people vote, rich people lobby. At the end of the day, if we want to get something done, we got to vote with our dollar.

YOUNG (voice-over): Ryan Young, CNN, Atlanta, Georgia. (END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Ryan, thank you very much for that. Big primaries in New York and Florida tomorrow and at least one top Democratic lawmaker will end up out of a job. What is at stake, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Tomorrow is gearing up to be another big primary day. This time, voters in Florida and New York are heading to the polls. One of the most anticipated match-up is in New York's 12th congressional district. The state's recently redistricting process is behind this race.

Congressman Jerry Nadler, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and Attorney Suraj Patel will face off against each other. At age 38, Patel is the youngest of the three candidates. Congresswoman Maloney is 76. Congressman Nadler is 75.

For more, I want to bring in now CNN political commentators Charlie Dent and Ashley Allison. I mean, it seems we have an election every day. What happened? What is going on? Do we have more?

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Democracy is a lie.

(LAUGHTER)

ALLISON: Barely.

LEMON: Get your defibrillator. Okay, so listen, Ashley, Nadler and Maloney are longtime allies. Both have been in the House since 1992. Now, they are intense rivals. With their careers on the line, who has got the edge here?

ALLISON: Well, it is unfortunate first that even in this situation, because of the way the lines were drawn around redistricting, if politics is normal, which we know it's not, Chairman Nadler probably will pull this one out. He has an endorsement of Chuck Schumer. He is ahead in the polls.

But, you know, if turnout is high, I don't think Patel will win, but I think it actually does favor Patel. He challenged Maloney a few cycles ago and only lost by 4,000 votes as a first-time candidate.

So, you also have a factor of abortion rights. So, you have women also showing up to the polls. And so, if you haven't done your research and you go on to the polls, I'm not saying women should just vote for women, but you might say, like, I want a woman to be representing me right now. But the likelihood is that Chairman Nadler will probably pull out this primary and most likely win the district because it's a blue district.

LEMON: Okay. Let's go to New York's tenth district now, Charlie. More than a dozen candidates are running. Among them is Trump impeachment lawyer and sitting Congressman Mondaire Jones. What will this race reveal anything about the showdown between progressives and more moderate Democrats?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA REPRESENTATIVE: From my perspective, it seems like there are too many progressives in the race. I think that gives Goldman a slight edge. Ordinarily, you would think the progressives would win, but that progressive vote can be split potentially three ways. So, I would have to think that Goldman has got maybe a slight advantage right now.

We are just talking about Nadler and Maloney. I've served with both of them. One thing I've noticed, these are two members who are both committee chairs. They have both been in for 15 terms.

And I've got to mention, too, this other guy Patel, you know, he's talking about being the next generation of leadership. You'd have to think that has some appeal when you have two people who are in their 70s. But it's hard to beat two institutions --

ALLISON: Yeah.

DENT: -- let alone one. I think you are right, I think this is really between Nadler and Maloney. But this other race, though, I think Goldman right is in a good spot just because the progressives are splitting the vote in three ways.

LEMON: Interesting, I was sitting next to some folks who are a big sort of political crowd last night. They were talking about the need for young people. Of course, the next to me was whispering in my ear, do we really need young people?

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: They don't know the history. I'm like, look, I'm not going to answer you on that.

Charlie, let's go to Florida now. A lot of focus is going to be on which Democrat is going to take GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, take on Ron DeSantis come November.

[23:44:57]

Congressman Charlie Crist and Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried are running against each other. Do either of these candidates have a chance at being Ron DeSantis?

DENT: I don't think they really do at this point. I mean, he is very powerful. He has got a lot of money. Florida has been trending Republican. So, I think it's a long shot. I just don't see that as a very competitive situation, although, I will say the Democrats do have a certain amount of intensity and energy now after the Dobbs decision. That might mitigate or make this race a little tighter than it would be. But it just seems that DeSantis is in a strong position.

LEMON: Florida has a lot for DeSantis or no?

ALLISON: If I were Democrats, I would also be looking at Val Demings.

LEMON: I'm going to talk about Val Demings. That's for Senate, right?

ALLISON: Yeah, but I would look at it as a package, right? So, if you get some excitement around the Senate race and putting Rubio out and voters show up and you have young people and people of color showing up, that's going to help in the governor's race as well. I think DeSantis is probably trending most likely to win in the general.

But there was also a poll out, I think, a week ago where people were saying in Florida that they did not want DeSantis to be president. So, you also have to wonder, this is for independent voters, you have to wonder if they even want him to be governor anymore. He is definitely been on the right of the right of Donald Trump right now, and I think some independent voters will show up and maybe say no.

LEMON: Since you've jumped ahead in the workbook, Senate race, Democratic Representative Val Demings is hoping to clinch the democratic nomination to take on Republican Senator Marco Rubio in November. If she wins, as expected, how big of a threat do you think she could be to Rubio? You were just talking about that, do you?

ALLISON: She has a bright political future. I mean, she was a part of the impeachment hearings. She's a former law enforcement. She is from the community. I mean, she was on the short list to be the vice president for Joe Biden. So, I do think that you are seeing her poll numbers trend up. The last couple, I saw she was up by four points. I think, you know, Rubio does have popularity in Florida.

But I think that this is a race to watch. The one thing I love about this race is that she's keeping it local. You don't hear a lot of conversations. She knows that the way you win Florida is to get into those communities and have direct conversations. You don't need it to be a national race. She's doing great with fundraising, and I think she has a strong possibility.

LEMON: It's been interesting to me to watch how she has been keeping it local. She's got a few national interviews. But mostly, she is keeping it local. And if you go to Florida and you watch the airwaves there, you will see that she is all over the airwaves.

DENT: The reason why they do that, look, in what should be a decent republican year, you will always, if you are the party in power, Democrats, you will always try to localize the race because oftentimes you do not want to nationalize these races. National environment favors the other party. She will localize a race.

I think it's very hard these days to localize races. But they really have no other choice. But at the end of the day, I still think Rubio comes through there. I think he's got enough juice in Florida. I don't bet against history --

LEMON: Yeah. DENT: -- when it comes to these midterms.

LEMON: I agree with you, but it's surprising to see how well she's doing. It is surprising to see how well Democrats are doing the races in Florida.

DENT: She is an impressive candidate.

LEMON: Yeah. All right. Do you disagree? I think it's surprising always when I see Florida or Arkansas or some red place, red state where I see Democrats are doing well, like, what is going on? But in order for Democrats to win in Pennsylvania, they have to be really far ahead in the polling. I think Democrats are excited, saying, oh, you know, we are catching up or we just edged them out. You've got to be far ahead.

ALLISON: The one thing -- I saw some numbers from --

LEMON: The people usually return home.

ALLISON: Yeah, but I think if you look at the numbers right now, the early voting and vote by mail in Florida is ahead of 2018, and that is a good sign for Democrats right now.

LEMON: Unless Republicans have learned their lesson from 2020.

DENT: The big voter suppression that went on in 2020 was Donald Trump suppressing the republican vote by telling Republicans not to vote by mail.

LEMON: Not to vote by mail. All right. Thank you both. Good to see you. See you soon.

Catastrophic flooding turning deadly in Dallas, Texas after a one in 100-year rainfall event. Now, a state of disaster has been declared.

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[23:50:00]

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LEMON: A state of disaster declared in Dallas, Texas with damaging rain and flooding killing at least one person. Authorities believe a 60-year-old woman was killed when her vehicle was swept away by floodwaters. Parts of the city got an entire summer's worth of rain in a single day. Here is CNN's Ed Lavandera.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A one in a 100- year rainfall event in Dallas, Fort Worth, drenching some parts with more than 10 inches of rain in less than 24 hours.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Oh my, gosh, I can't get home.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The storm left major roadways flooded, vehicles submerged, and some residents waking up Monday morning to kitchens, living rooms, and hallways submerged in water.

Emergency officials in Dallas and Fort Worth say they've responded to hundreds of high-water incidents and traffic accidents.

LT. JOSEPH MARTINEZ, DALLAS FIRE AND RESCUE: I think everybody wasn't anticipating this much rain this fast.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The sudden and drastic change in weather has stunned the Dallas-Fort Worth area after months of extreme and exceptional drought.

Since January, there has been a rainfall deficit of more than 10 inches. That deficit has been erased after a summer's worth of rain soaked the area in less than a day.

[23:54:58]

These storms have been moving over the same path since the overnight hours, dumping relentless amounts of water along the way.

MARTINEZ: The ground is very dry but it can only absorb so much, so fast.

BRITTANY TAYLOR, DALLAS RESIDENT (voice-over): I'm freaking out. My apartment is literally flooding. I just woke up and I -- should I call 9-1-1? What do I do?

(CRYING)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Brittney Taylor says she moved into this Dallas apartment just two days ago. She woke up at 3 a.m. to what she described as -- quote -- "torrential rain and two feet of water on the first floor of her home." Now, she is waiting through the aftermath to see what, if anything, remains undamaged.

TAYLOR (voice-over): Oh, good guys, look, MacBook can float. Yeah, there is all my childhood keepsakes.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Don, today's rainfall leaves behind some tragic news. Officials here in the area confirmed that a 60-year-old woman was swept away in the floodwaters. The police chief in Mesquite says she was actually on the phone with her family when they lost contact with her. Don?

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LEMON: Ed, thank you.

And thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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